Handy Dandy GM Guide: Part One (Combat)

As a new GM, I realized that, though most systems have GM Guides, none of them really prepare you for dealing with real life players. From min-maxing to know-it-alls, players will try every thing to derail your carefully laid plans. Something happens when your friends are players in your campaign. They change into this mass of hideous, whining,  Cheetos and Mountain Dew fueled creatures, and your only thoughts are of destroying them in insidious ways.

So, being the helpful, generous, and all around great girl that I am, I bring to you my Handy Dandy GM Guide: Part One (Combat).

Keep Your Fights Interesting:

Often times combat is the worst part of gaming. It's slow, there is often a lot of bickering about rules, and one word...THACO (such a bad four letter word, that it's a five letter word).

It's a GM's job to keep the players engaged, and keep combat interesting, so here are some tips to help in that situation.

Give player's a challenge:

All players love the feeling of accomplishment when they win that particularly hard fight, so why not up the stakes?

Level one players fighting a dragon? Good.

Level one players fighting two dragons? Better.

Level one players fighting an army of dragons riding other dragons? Best.



Throw in random easier fights:

After your group finishes with the harder fights, throw in one or two easier battles. Do not allow players to rest- that will only slow down the game.  As an added bonus, if you plan it right, you could wipe out a whole party with just a few small creatures.

"The weight of the dragon's body hitting the ground causes the floor to give way. You fall into a pit littered with bones. 12 Kobolds look over the edge of the pit, their spears and arrows at the ready."

Putting these tips in your game will not only enhance the gaming experience for everyone, but will also garner you lots of praise from your players (remember the cursing of players when you do something, means you're doing it right).

Happy Gaming Everyone, and until next time....May your crits be many, and your 1's few (unless your playing GURPS or something like that).

Gamer Girlfriends

I'll admit, when I first met Brad I wasn't a RPGer. I'd played video games before (mostly first person shooters), but I didn't know my butt from a d10 (yay! hyperbole!). Brad, however, played every week with a well established gaming group. Every week I marveled at their epic exploits, but soon that wasn't enough, so I, in what I now see as an insane attempt to impress him, asked to join their weekly sessions.

I became a gamer girlfriend, and not in a good sense. No, I was the quintessential idiot at the table. Creating characters was like assembling a jet fighter, blind-folded, with the instructions in Korean.  Actually playing was even worse.  I got the whole 'being' my character thing, but the mechanics (especially combat) eluded me.  I am surprised that my friends did not shoot laser beams of fury out of their eyes at me for asking so many questions.



That was about 5 years ago.

I am slowly but surely getting better (well, at least I hope I am). I get the eye laser fury looks less and less now, and sessions are not so bogged down with my questions any more (yes, I still do ask questions, but in my defense NWoD is so full of rules and words it's hard for me not to). I am even taking a crack at GMing (Game Mastering) my own games now. It's super fun, if not just a little terrifying.



In retrospect, I am kind of glad I was a RPG virgin (insert your own dirty joke, I'm tired) when I met Brad. It was a really good bonding experience for us for him to teach me (Yay! extra credit!), and I didn't come into it with any pre-learned bad habits. It didn't hurt that he, and the rest of the group, are all excellent explainers of things (or that I am an excellent student....and humble).

Welp, I am off to prepare for my game for tomorrow, but how does combat go again?